Many people believe that excommunication means being condemned to hell and irreversibly expelled from a church. But those assumptions are not entirely true, and in practice, excommunication is much less dramatic. According to Britannica, excommunicated people are excluded from the rites and sacraments of a church and the communion of believers. Interestingly, reformed churches prefer the term “church discipline.”

In the Catholic Church, a person is automatically excommunicated when there is a flagrant violation of canon law. These offenses include rejecting the Catholic faith and its authority, abortion, heresy, disrespecting the Holy Communion, physically attacking the Pope, and violating the confessional seal (via Dummies). According to Slate, when the offense is less clear, the decision is made by a diocesan tribunal or the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

However, in both cases, the person is still considered Catholic due to the baptism. The excommunication will deprive them of most sacraments — with the exception of the Sacrament of Penance — which means they are not allowed to get married in a church or receive the Holy Communion.

Excommunication is not irreversible

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